St. Charles East shows passion, beats Batavia
A year ago the St. Charles East boys soccer team was competitive in the majority of its matches but there were just too many occasions when the Saints fell short of victory.
So far this season, even when the team isn't playing its best soccer, the Saints are finding a way to win.
Such was the case in an emotional and particularly physical Upstate Eight Conference match at Norris Stadium as the Saints held on to defeat Batavia, 2-1.
"With the local rival, sometimes the playbook goes out the window," St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. "The passion was certainly there, but I'll be honest, our quality wasn't."
St. Charles East (5-3, 2-1) took a 1-0 lead with 28:02 remaining in the first half
when Austin Jackman sent a corner kick to senior midfielder Jonny Bren who scored the goal on a header.
The Saints didn't give themselves a cushion until only 6:55 remained in the contest. Ethan Jendrzejczyk fired a shot that ricocheted off the crossbar and almost right back at him. Bren kept the play alive long enough for Jendrzejczyk to regain possession and hammer it into the back of the net.
"The kid (Jendrzejczyk) is all fiery and all passion," Jennison said. "He works very, very hard and he loves the game. He made a good finish after the keeper and he stayed with it and that's some of the team spirit we've been looking for this year."
Batavia (2-2-1, 0-1-0) didn't quit though. Hoping to win its third straight, the Bulldogs pulled to within 2-1 with 3:31 remaining in the match on a possession that began on a free kick by Cody Witkowski and culminated on a header goal by Anton Kondaurov.
"We got that late goal which was very nice," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "The guys kept playing whistle to whistle so that was very good."
The Bulldogs controlled the midfield and created more scoring opportunities than the Saints, but everyone knows it doesn't matter how many chances you have, but how many goals you score.
"I thought that the last two years Batavia has controlled the midfield and we knew that they would try to do it again," Jennison said. "The guys did what they needed to do and they stuck together. They could've crumbled, but didn't, and that's what I'm most happy with."
As the final line of defense, Saints goalkeepers Nick Novotny and Eric Meesenburg shared time on the field and came up with several strong saves to secure the victory.
Although they came up short in their Upstate Eight Conference debut, the Bulldogs still consider the season young, as this was only their fifth match.
"I was pleased with how they played," Gianfrancesco said. "We're going to keep getting better, understanding each other better and that'll come when we play a more consistent schedule now."